Kardar's Dard (1947), again under the music direction of Naushad, she also sang a duet; "Betaab Hai Dil Dard-e-Mohabat Ke Asar Se", with Suraiya.

[13] The success of Dard meant that she next received Mehboob Khan's Anokhi Ada (1948), which again had two hit numbers, "Kahe Jiya Dole" and "Dil Ko Lagake Humne Kuch Bhi Na Paya".

Her seven songs, which include hits such as "Saanjh Ki Bela" remain her most accomplished work in her singing career, though signing for the film also meant a breach of contract with producer-director Kardar, which led to her dwindling fortunes in the industry.

Moreover, in the following years, owing to her older style of singing and limited vocal range, she found it difficult to compete with the rising singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Suman Kalyanpur etc.

Knowing about this crazy love for Dilip Kumar, Naushad asked Dilip Kumar, who was his friend, to cast her in one of his films, and she appeared in Babul (1950) with him, which had Nargis as the lead actress; it is he who renamed her "Tun Tun" to suit her comic persona,[3] the name stayed with her, and a comedic legend was born.

[14] In the 1960s and 1970s, she was a permanent comic relief in numerous Bollywood films; a few years down the line, she most notably starred with Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halaal (1982), a Prakash Mehra blockbuster.

[10] In her career spanning five decades, she acted in about 198 films in Hindi/Urdu and other languages like Punjabi etc., pairing with top comedy actors of her times such as Bhagwan Dada, Agha, Sunder, Mukri, Dhumal, Johnny Walker and Keshto Mukherjee.